China Trade Balance

China: Trade surplus narrows in 2010

January 14, 2011

In December, exports added 17.9% over the same month the year before to reach USD 154.1 billion. The figure nearly halved the 34.9% expansion observed in November and surprised market expectations on the downside, which had exports growing 23.3%. Meanwhile, imports grew 25.6% over December 2009 (November: +37.9% year-on-year) to reach USD 141.0 billion, fanned by buoyant domestic demand. As a result, the trade surplus fell from USD 22.9 billion in November to USD 13.1 billion in December. With the December reading, exports reached USD 1.6 trillions in the full-year 2010, which is 31.3% above the USD 1.2 trillion recorded in 2009. Total imports climbed 38.7% over the last year to reach USD 1.4 trillion. As a result, the trade surplus for the full-year 2010 fell to USD 183.1 billions, down from the USD 196.4 billions surplus recorded in 2009.

Exports expanded 11.1% annually in January, coming in slightly above both December’s 10.9% increase and the 10.7% rise that market analysts had expected.
Meanwhile, imports surged to a 36.9% expansion over the same month last year in January, which overshot December’s 4.5% expansion.

The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), fell slightly to 51.3 points in January from 51.6 points in December.